Many members of the Upper Great Lakes Métis Community utilized their knowledge of the lands, waters, and local peoples to maintain meaningful employment as guides and interpreters. Lewis Solomon, a member of the Métis community at Penetanguishene, was one of those guides. Lewis was born on Drummond Island in 1821 and later moved to Penetanguishene during the community’s relocation in 1829. As a young adult, Lewis pursued “a tolerably fair education” that afforded him a “c

Throughout history, Métis across the Homeland have found employment using their fluency in a diverse array of languages. Prominent language-based Métis professions have included interpreters and guides. Many passed their language-based vocations down between generations. Lewis Solomon, a well-known member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, for example, followed in the footsteps of his father, William, who was an Indian interpreter for the British Government. Like many M

After the imposition of the international border following the War of 1812, the Métis community living on Drummond Island, just east of Sault Ste. Marie, was relocated to Penetanguishene. While the Métis community rebuilt their lives together in their new home, preserving and celebrating their Métis traditions, they faced anti-Métis prejudice from their new neighbours, both at the nearby naval base and from the growing settler population that began arriving in the area in th

Many parts of the Métis Homeland are known for their harsh winters, and the Rainy Lake District is no exception. Throughout the historic fur trade period, when others left for more seasonable locations, many brave Métis families remained at various trading posts throughout the cold winter months to keep the fur trade economy alive and thriving—a practice known in English as overwintering, or hiverner in French. One of the Rainy Lake District’s well-known overwinterers was ren

Louis Riel’s execution by Canada on November 16, 1885, cast a long shadow over Métis communities throughout the Métis Homeland, including Métis communities in the Upper Great Lakes and northern Ontario. Since the Red River Resistance of 1869/70, southern Ontario had been an epicentre for anti-Métis racism. Like Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s federal government, the Ontario provincial government—led by Premier Edward Blake—was dominated by English-speaking Protestants that

The merger of the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 marked a turning point in the fur trade. For Métis fur trade employees like Henry, Pierre Guillaume, and John Charles Sayer, the merger of the two companies brought uncertainty, as positions were reduced and once important trade routes shifted. Each of the Sayer brothers experienced and navigated this changing fur trade environment in their own way. At the time of the merger, for example, John Charles S